In the Darkness of the Void
by BlackTyrantValvatorez
Summary: Cornelia killed Charles zi Britannia before Suzaku could bring Lelouch to Pendragon. As 99th Empress, Cornelia gives Lelouch only one chance to redeem himself when Guilford delivers him to her: Destroy the Geass Order and rescue his younger sister. Succeeding at this, Lelouch finds himself in a weird position because of not one, but TWO arranged marriages.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This story was inspired by WDCain Man's story 'The Death of Dreams,' mostly for the beginning of this story.

Suzaku arrived at the front entrance to the Imperial Palace of Pendragon when Gilbert G.P. Guilford noticed him arrive with a defeated Lelouch and said, "Sir Suzaku Kururugi, what business do you have with Her Majesty Cornelia li Britannia?"

Suzaku just stood there looking surprised at the revelation that Cornelia was Empress and asked, "Wh- What do you mean by Her Majesty Cornelia? Isn't Charles zi Britannia the Emperor!? I have come to deliver Lelouch to him!"

"Charles zi Britannia was the FORMER Emperor of Britannia, Sir Suzaku. Her Majesty Cornelia li Britannia is currently the 99th Empress of the Holy Britannian Empire, having killed his former Majesty Charles and taking the throne by force. You merely spared us the trouble of finding Lelouch."

Lelouch then remembered what had happened when he had geassed Cornelia. He had told a bit too much about his suspicions behind Marianne's assassination to Cornelia and among those suspicions was the idea that Charles had ordered her death in the first place. "That's right, I remember now. I remember telling Cornelia that my father had ordered my mother's death be carried out. Since she wanted to kill those responsible for the assassination, Cornelia must have come to the conclusion that Charles was one of those responsible and killed him out of revenge." Lelouch stated.

Suzaku paled at that information and said, "No. No. No! You're lying, Lelouch! Princess Cornelia would never kill the Emperor over something like that, unlike you!"

"I'm afraid that you are wrong about that, Suzaku Kururugi. You seem to need a bit of punishment right now. As for you Lelouch, Her Majesty wishes to speak with you. However, those prisoner clothes do not suite you at all. Royal Guard, come here at once. Gilbert G.P. Guilford, the Knight of One, demands it!"

The Royal Guard stampeded onto the scene and formed a circle around Suzaku and Lelouch from various doorways and alleys before one of them asked, "What is your command, Honorable Knight of One?"

Guilford ordered, "Release Lelouch vi Britannia and arrest Sir Suzaku Kururugi."

At that, several of the Royal Guard in the circle moved aside and let a group of more of them move into the circle as they approached Lelouch and Suzaku. When they got within arm distance of the two, Suzaku realized that he simply could not win against so many of the Royal Guard and allowed himself to have his hands taken off Lelouch before he watched as two members uncuffed the former prince before they removed the prisoner confinement uniform from Lelouch and escorted him into the palace. It was after Lelouch was out of Suzaku's sight that the Honorary Britannian was forced into the prisoner suit and his hands were cuffed before being dragged inside the palace.

Inside a private room, the two Royal Guard members who escorted Lelouch said to him, "There is a change of clothes fit for a prince like yourself in the closet. Even if you were disowned, we still consider you a prince and thus you should still look the part. You have ten minutes to change." before exiting the room and locking it from the outside. Lelouch considered his options and took about seven minutes to change into the outfit that had been provided (It's a larger version of the outfit that Lelouch wore when he was a ten-year old prince). Once he was done changing, the two Royal Guards came in and escorted Lelouch to the Throne Room.

Guilford was in there, waiting along with Cornelia when the two Royal Guard members came in with Lelouch and they said, "Your Majesty, we have brought Lelouch here and imprisoned Suzaku as instructed."

"I do not remember ordering you soldiers to arrest my sister's Knight. Release him and bring him in here." Cornelia li Britannia, 99th Empress of the Holy Britannian Empire, stated. The Royal Guard left and then Cornelia said, "Lelouch, my half-brother. It has been a long time since I last saw you, hasn't it?"

"I know that you have something planned for me, half-sister. Why else would I be here in front of you?" Lelouch replied.

Before Cornelia could reply, two members of the Royal Guard came in with a restrained Suzaku and said, "Your Majesty, we cannot safely allow Sir Suzaku Kururugi to be released without reasonable fear for Lelouch's survival."

"Very well, you shall remove the gag on his mouth." Cornelia ordered. After the gag was removed, Suzaku shouted, "Your Majesty, I recommend that you have Lelouch executed! He is too dangerous to be allowed to live!"

"Denied, Sir Suzaku. Besides, thanks to a little ploy that I cooked up before the S.A.Z. Incident occurred Euphemia is still alive. Also, if I had Lelouch executed I would have taken no chances and needed to have Nunnally and his other friends at Ashford Academy executed as well. Consider that, if you will."

Suzaku remained silent, shocked by what Cornelia had just said. She had clearly stated that if Lelouch was to be executed, then his friends and Nunnally would share his fate. "However," she said, "This does not excuse the fact that Lelouch losing control of his geass caused the Special Administration Zone to end in failure. Just listen to what I have to say to my dear half-brother."

Cornelia focused her attention on Lelouch and said, "Lelouch, even though you had killed a body double of my younger sister and instigated rebellion against the Empire you are still the one half-brother I love the most. I will be clear here, you shall be granted ONLY ONE chance to redeem yourself. If you fail, you will spend the rest of your natural life in prison. Now then, here is what has been going on so far."

Cornelia inhaled a deep breath before saying, "An organization known as the Geass Order has based itself in the Chinese Federation within a sanctuary beneath the Gobi Desert. They are led by our deceased father's vile brother V.V. and are holding Nunnally hostage. You are to become Zero once more, take the Black Knight forces that we have captured and use them to both destroy the Geass Order and rescue Nunnally. Intelligence has also located former Knight of One Bismarck Waldstein, former Knight of Four Dorothea Ernst, former Knight of Ten Luciano Bradley, and former Knight of Twelve Monica Kruszewski at the Geass Order. You are to kill them as well. Screw this up and I will assure you that I will figuratively have your and Nunnally's heads on a silver platter."

Lelouch remained silent for about a minute before he said, "Very well, dear half-sister. I will not fail you."

"You're lucky that most of the Black Knights we captured haven't been executed yet. Schneizel is with Guinevere and Carine in a maximum-security prison in the middle of nowhere. Just be aware that I know that you are Zero and that I WILL expose you as a fraud should you try to revolt against me."

Lelouch remained silent as he was escorted out of the Throne Room by a member of the Royal Guard that just arrived. Suzaku was also escorted of the room and about half an hour later, a young blond boy wearing a royal outfit entered the room.

"So you've finally decided to show your face to me, V.V."

"So what Bismarck said was true all along. You did kill my brother Charles out of revenge for that bitch Mari-" V.V. began but was interrupted by Cornelia standing up and drawing out her personal firearm before shooting the immortal in the head. V.V. dropped to the ground and Cornelia ordered the Royal Guard to throw the immortal's corpse into a prison cell.


	2. Chapter 2

Geass Order sanctuary, Thought Elevator.

General Bartley was busy watching over the experiments being performed on Jeremiah when he heard a rumbling sound come from above. Thinking that it was nothing, he focused on the experiments. A few seconds later, another louder rumble was heard along with the sound of gunfire. It was then that a member of the Geass Order came in and said, "Sir, the Black Knights!"

"Wh- What!? The Black Knights are here!?" Bartley asked, surprised.

"Unfortunately yes, the Black Knights are here. They're attacking the sanctuary and slaughtering our forces. We need to get you out of here before those so-called Knights of Justice kill you as well."

"Fine then."

Bartley left along with the Geass Order member. With the Black Knights forces, Kallen was locked in a brutal one-on-one duel with Luciano Bradley that lasted for ten minutes so far while Tohdoh in a Burai-Kai was dealing with Bismarck Waldstein in his Galahad. She was aware that her leader Zero was none other than Lelouch vi Britannia after the situation at Kamine Island. She had ran away, but that was to prevent her from being killed from behind by someone that hadn't been present in the vicinity a few minutes ago. She was not happy at all that Ohgi had been pardoned by the Britannians in exchange for destroying this organization that Lelouch called the Geass Order while Tohdoh and the others had been rescued by Zero before they were to be executed since they refused amnesty. Zero did mention that Ohgi would no longer be a Black Knight after the Geass Order was destroyed. Lelouch himself was fighting Monica Kruszewski while Tamaki was in combat with Dorothea Ernst.

Ducking to avoid a blow from Luciano, Kallen then made a counterattack and managed to get lucky when her Radiation Claw grabbed Luciano's cockpit. Firing up the Wave Surger, Kallen smirked as Luciano Bradley's Knightmare bubbled and exploded. The horrified scream her enemy let out before he died only served to amplify her victory. Tohdoh managed to analyze Bismarck's fighting style and tried to fake him out with the slash harkens before stabbing the cockpit of the Galahad, but that was when Bismarck activated his Geass and evaded both attacks entirely.

"You're skilled, Phantom of Itsukushima. However, you will need more than that to defeat me." Bismarck quipped.

As Lelouch managed to destroy Monica's Knightmare, he saw that Tamaki and Dorothea were both seriously damaged. It was at that point that Lelouch decided to support Tamaki and together they destroyed the former Knight of Four within four minutes. After that, Zero transmitted to Tamaki, _"I have something to attend to. Assist Kallen and Tohdoh while I complete my business. Zero out."_

Zero then left Tamaki to his own devices and Tamaki decided that he'll just go with what Zero ordered and helped Kallen and Tohdoh against Bismarck. With Tamaki in the fight, Bismarck found himself four minutes later in a wrecked Galahad that would not respond and worse, the Core Luminous was going critical.

"I believe that the term here is, 'Farewell.' Now where the hell are more members of the Geass Order?" Tohdoh said before turning his back to the Galahad and walking away as it exploded behind him.

Meanwhile with Zero, he had just managed to kill several members of the Geass Order and cornered another such member in a small house that had two bedrooms, one of which had only one way in or out. Zero checked his pistol and found that he had about seven shots left before sliding the magazine back in place and entering the room. Once inside, although he appeared calm because of the mask, inside it Lelouch blood went cold as he saw the cornered Geass Order member trying to use Nunnally as a human shield. Unfortunately for the member, he was simply too big for her to shield most of his body from a bullet. Lelouch noticed that as well and shot the Geass Order member in the head.

Zero immediately put his weapon away and moved right next to Nunnally before picking her up and carrying the blind and crippled princess in his arms.

 _'Holy shit are my arms going to be sore after this!'_ Lelouch thought to himself as he got into his Knightmare and then positioned himself so that Nunnally was sitting sideways on his lap before closing the Burai's cockpit and booting up the machine's systems. Lelouch's arms were indeed sore, but his shoulders were also aching like nobody's business.

 _"To all members of the Black Knights, I have managed to rescue a High-Value Target. Just be aware that all of you are now on your own. I will not be leading you anymore since Cornelia knows who I am. All that I ask is for you to continue to protect the weak, no matter if they are your own people or Britannians. This is the final request from your former leader Zero. This is where I say farewell Black Knights, for I shall not meet you again."_ Zero transmitted across an open channel before heading towards an exit that the Black Knights had not managed to block off. Once he got out of the Sanctuary, it took him nearly three hours to reach a small outpost where Guilford was waiting.

Lelouch opened the cockpit of his Knightmare and heard Gilford say, "You'll report back to Cornelia the specifics about the mission once we return to the Homeland."

Lelouch remained silent as he got himself and Nunnally out of the cockpit.

* * *

 **Six weeks later**

"And that's all that I have to report." Lelouch said to Cornelia li Britannia in the Throne Room of the Imperial Palace.

"Hmm. Interesting and impressive. You definitely have not screwed up. The only question I have is this: Why did you rescue those Black Knights who refused amnesty and were to be executed?" Cornelia replied.

"To be honest, if I had not done so I would have been completely destroyed by the four ex-Knights of the Round at the Geass Order."

"That is true since Tohdoh was the one to deal the finishing blow to Bismarck. Well, the Black Knights that you rescued are still fighting against the Empire and they've been quite a nuisance against the new Viceroy of Area Eleven. Whatever, it's water under the bridge now. Anyway, after you and Suzaku left V.V. visited me earlier and tried to convince me to go along with some weired plan called Ragnarok that would destroy the world. My reply was to shoot him in the head before imprisoning him inside one of those things that 'the other immortal' was supposed to have been confined in. Speaking of which, where is that other immortal?"

"I think she's with the Black Knights. Her name is C.C. and it seems that the conversation with V.V. started a bit after he recovered from the gunshot wound."

"Correct, and that first headshot was because he insulted Marianne's name while he was in front of me in this room. What I described earlier was the second time I shot that immortal smug-ass in the head. The first time he revived was while in a prison cell and oddly enough, he didn't try to escape. Now then, let's discuss wedding arrangements."

"C.C. doesn't trust the military because of what Clovis put her through. To be honest, she has been a pain for me to put up with. Also, what was that about wedding arrangements?"

"Your wedding arrangements, Lelouch. While I do care for you, Euphemia and I still want payback for your Geass ruining the Special Administrative Zone. We decided to stick you in an arranged marriage."

"Euphy I can understand, but didn't you already get revenge?"

"No, Lelouch. You had managed to defeat me back then during the First Black Rebellion. While I can't kill you since it would break Euphemia and Nunnally's hearts, that doesn't mean I cannot get back at you through other means." Cornelia said rather suggestively.

"What did you and Euphy have in mind?" Lelouch asked while inside, he was fearful about who he might end up with.

Cornelia simply smirked and then said, "You might call me and Euphy a pair of evil women for this Lelouch, but we decided to have you and Nunnally married to each other. Not to mention that a few days after that, you'll be marrying one of your friends from Ashford Academy, specifically Shirley Fenette."

Lelouch was silent for a few moments before saying, "I would have preferred to have Nunnally be with Suzaku, but I have no objections to marrying her myself. I just don't know how Shirley is going to take this. I know for a fact that Suzaku is not going to be happy about this. Speaking about him though, who is he stuck with if you and Euphy planned to arrange a marriage for him?"

"We found yet another friend from Ashford Academy in a prison cell for attempting to detonate a makeshift Sakuradite bomb during the First Black Rebellion. Euphy and I decided to arrange her and Suzaku to marry each other just like we did with Nunnally and yourself, Lelouch. Now then, I believe that our business is concluded."

"Very well, dear sister Cornelia." Lelouch mumbled under his breath as he left the Throne Room.


End file.
